According to The Star, Children, like adults, experience stress for a variety of reasons, including school, homework, peer pressure, and sibling rivalry. However, their feelings are frequently dismissed, and they aren't given the support they need to cope, according to Childline Foundation and Toy Libraries director Datin PH Wong.
"Asian adults, including Malaysians, rarely acknowledge that children have feelings. Parents frequently reject their children's feelings, oblivious to the fact that children can be stressed as well.
As parents, we must recognize that our children have feelings and understand what has happened to them. (Photo / Retrieved from Pixabay)
"As parents, we must recognize that our children have feelings, and if they are unable to cope with these feelings, we must investigate what is happening to them and what is disturbing them," she says.
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Recognizing your child's signals of stress
According to Wong, stress presents itself differently in each child, therefore parents must get to know their children to recognize any changes in behavior.
"Any internal alterations will generally reveal themselves in their external behavior." For example, a normally cheerful and extroverted child may turn silent or grumpy suddenly. "Or they may become less talkative and eat less," she adds.
When your child is distressed, what should you do?
According to Wong, the first step is to figure out what is bothering the child. "Parents must be able to speak in a supportive manner and not assume that their child is merely misbehaving." "Talk to the youngster to figure out what's wrong, whether their feelings are justified, and if there's anything they can do to help the child solve the situation," she suggests.
Stress can affect children for a variety of reasons.
It could be problems with their friends, school, or schoolwork, and they simply need assistance on how to deal with it. As a result, parents must first determine the fundamental reason of the child's distress before intervening.
Solving the challenge as a group
As Asian parents, we must shift our focus from trying to fix the problem for the child directly to addressing how "we can tackle the problem together."
"During the flood, while adults were anxious and trying to put their lives back together," Wong explains, "few few thought about how the children were feeling or even talked to their children about the trauma that they had just gone through."
"Sometimes it's because parents don't think they have to." "We can't take things for granted because, while children are amazing survivors and do survive, there are others who aren't as tough or emotionally strong, and these are the ones who will have challenges," she says.
She also claims that Asian parents are too protective of their children.
"They'll offer, 'Let me take care of it for you.'" They'll tell the kids what to do, what to study, and what jobs to pursue, and while they mean well, it may not always be the best option for the kid," she adds.
"Isn't it preferable to simply ask the youngster and allow them learn to make their own decisions?" She asks rhetorically, adding that by doing so, they can learn to be more self-sufficient.
